Nevada Athletic Director search: Who will fill the chair?

Dec. 9, 2012

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KEY PLAYERS IN AD HIRING

• UNR president Marc Johnson: Johnson will have the final vote when it comes to hiring an athletic director, though he’s set up a number of panels and talked to conference commissioners and school presidents to inform his decision. • Search firm: A head-hunting search firm will be hired as early as this week. The firm will create a shortlist of finalists that will interview for the position. • Community panel: A 10-person panel of influential community members will be created to ensure the candidates are correct fits for Northern Nevada. • UNR panel: A 10-person panel of UNR employees will be created to make sure the hire is appropriate for the university. The athletic director is one of the highest-paid employees at UNR. • Board of Regents: Nevada’s 13-member Board of Regents govern the state’s system of higher education and has to approve all contracts, even in the athletic department. Getting the rubber stamp from the Board of Regents is the final step in hiring an AD.

NEXT STEPS

While UNR president Marc Johnson doesn’t have a firm timeline on the hiring of an athletic director, here’s a tentative look at how the process will evolve over the next couple of months. • Hire a search firm: Johnson would like to have a search firm hired this week. The firm, which will cost around $60,000, will lead the charge in finding finalists. • Complete panels: Johnson is assembling two 10-person panels — one made of community members and the other made of UNR employees — to help create a list of characteristics sought in the next AD. • Narrow down candidates: The search firm, with help from the panels, will cull a list of potential candidates that will move forward into the interview phase. • Interviews: Johnson will interview a group of candidates (likely no more than five) before a hire is made. • Hire a candidate: Johnson wants the next athletic director hired in the spring so he or she will be ready to take over on July 1. Johnson, who said he did not have a firm salary for the position, will make the final call.

WE WANT YOUR OPINION

What do you think the most important quality for Nevada’s next athletic director should be? Email sports editor Lauren Gustus at lgustus@rgj.com with your feedback, which the RGJ will print in an upcoming edition.

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In a couple of months, Marc Johnson will make an important hire. A hire that affects hundreds of student-athletes and thousands of Wolf Pack fans.

The UNR president is tasked with selecting the school’s fourth athletic director since 1969, a leader who will follow in the footsteps of predecessors Dick Trachok, Chris Ault and, most recently, Cary Groth.

Johnson said the Wolf Pack’s next athletic director is “somebody who walks on water” before elaborating on all the virtues the hiree must have.

“Am I asking for much?” Johnson then asked rhetorically. “It’s a big job and one of our core positions.”

The search for Nevada’s next athletic director will start this week when Johnson hires an independent search firm to cull a list of candidates. The cost for the search firm will be about $60,000.

Johnson also will create two 10-person panels, one made of influential community members and another of UNR employees, to help inform his decision.

The hire will help redefine a Wolf Pack athletic department that has had successful football and men’s basketball programs, but has struggled in most of the other sports and has fallen behind in trying to create the kind of revenue required to take the department to the next level.

Johnson has had plenty of time to prepare for this hire. Groth announced in August that she would retire when her contract expires in June. Johnson would like to make the hire in the spring, ensuring the Wolf Pack’s future athletic director is ready to start the job on July 1, at the start of the 2013-14 fiscal year.

“Hiring an AD is one of the really important decisions a president has to make,” Johnson said. “My process of learning how to do this has included consultations with three conference commissioners and a number of presidents who have recently hired ADs. I have talked to three search firms so far and quite a few people in the community, so I have certainly taken the time to study.”

The perfect candidate

The list of qualities Johnson’s looking for in a successful candidate are many.

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He wants a strong community member. He wants an advocate for and continuation of Nevada’s above-average Title IX commitment. He wants somebody who will strike the balance between academics and athletics. He wants somebody who will lead the Pack to the Governor’s Cup title in the rivalry series with UNLV. He wants a creative financial manager. He wants a person Northern Nevada can trust.

But perhaps most importantly, he wants a fundraiser.

“As the university starts a capital campaign, you can’t have athletics moving in one direction and academics moving in another,” Johnson said. “You really have to have somebody in the AD position that will be firmly a part of the university, so we’ll be looking at that characteristic, as well.”

The Wolf Pack’s annual athletic budget of $18.1 million is the lowest in the Mountain West. The department lacks football and basketball practice facilities, which most MWC schools have, and Mackay Stadium (opened in 1966) could use a renovation. Increasing revenue is a must for the next athletic director.

“We need somebody who has people skills, somebody who can come in and raise money, somebody who has experience and a vision for where this program needs to go,” basketball coach David Carter said. “That’s the biggest thing. This program is in good shape, but we need to grow. We’re in a great conference and we need to have a vision of what we want to be and how we’re going to get there.”

Football coach Chris Ault, who was Nevada’s athletic director from 1986-2004, echoed the importance of revenue generation. He said the next athletic director must be football-focused, which is something he didn’t see in the previous regime.

Ault said it is a must that a football/all-sport practice facility is built within the next couple of years. The veteran coach said his team has always done more with less but that the next athletic director needs to invest in football so it will create the kind of revenue to support the entire department.

“You’ve got to get somebody who can raise money and a person who has a sound, solid football background,” Ault said. “There’s no question. That’s where this program has to go. We’re so far behind at this time in support and what it takes to be at this level, facility-wise and financially.”

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Johnson stressed the importance of the two revenue sports — football and men’s basketball — but said the next AD didn’t necessarily have to be geared towards football first.

“I’d put it less focused on football, but I would say that an AD who does not understand the role football and men’s basketball play toward the total revenue picture of athletics would be inappropriate for this job,” Johnson said. “Rather than saying the AD has to have a football focus, I would have to say that the AD has to be very knowledgable about what a total athletics program looks like and that it’s really hinged financially on football and men’s basketball.”

Finding the next AD

Johnson said a couple of potential candidates have reached out to the university since Groth announced her retirement, but the search firm will do the heavy lifting to locate finalists.

While the search firm will come at a hefty price — the roughly $60,000 will be paid out of the general university budget — Johnson said the hire is necessary to find the right candidate for the job.

“Search firms, particularly those specialized in one specific area, add a lot of expertise,” Johnson said. “I want a firm that specializes in sports figures, like coaches and ADs. When these firms specialize, they develop networks of potential candidates, they develop networks of people in the business and these folks make it part of their job to be in the network where most of the AD candidates happen to be.”

It is not necessary for the Wolf Pack’s next athletic director to have previous experience in that position, though it would be a bonus. An up-and-coming senior associate athletic director, like Nevada’s own Rory Hickok, a potential candidate, also would be considered.

Johnson said he had “no idea” how much the next athletic director would make. Groth makes $277,000 per year, but Nevada might have to increase that salary.

UNLV’s Jim Livengood makes $350,000 per year, with the potential for $221,000 in bonuses. Boise State and San Jose State both hired athletic directors within the past year, at around $325,000 per year.

“I’m planning on something in the neighborhood of where Cary is because that’s what we’ve got on the budgetline right now, but I’ll have to take the advice of our search firm in terms of what the market is like,” Johnson said.

The new hire will have a handful of immediate agenda items: both the football and basketball programs want practice facilities that could total $20 million; the Wolf Pack must address its lagging attendance; and many of the department’s teams need a jump-start to get back on the road to success.

“This decision is going to be huge for the growth of this athletic department,” Carter said.

Said Ault: “We have to make a statement. It’s a signature position, without question. It has to be an aggressive person and we have to have a plan out there, and right now we don’t have one.”